UCLH vs Kings

[FordyBee]

Hi there

I am 31 weeks (due mid Nov) and have just moved South of the River from Islington. I am booked in to UCLH as that's where I had booked in prior to moving, but my nearest hospital will now be Kings and I am deliberating about whether to change or not. My initial feeling was to stick with what I am familiar with, I like UCLH, they seem to be very reputable etc etc (in fact have heard stories of doctors who would only give birth there? not sure how true..), but people keep looking at me in horror when I say it might take us 40 mins to get there if the traffic is bad (equally it could take 20 mins or 60 mins - this is London after all).

I think that there are reasons for / against each of UCLH and Kings (UCLH has bigger neonatal ICU / Kings has lower caesarean rates), but I like the idea that if things go well I could use the birthing centre at UCLH and as I said, I feel very comfortable there and would, to be honest, rather not change now.

I guess my question is does anyone have views on whether it is more important to be nearer the hospital or in one you feel familiar and happy with?

Ah, just in case it helps, so far pregnancy is problem free.

Thanks!

I can't tell you anything about UCLH, but the maternity services at king's have been transformed of late - and many local GPs have said they choose King's. The maternity service has been commended: here

The website doesn't mention things like water-birth but it does say midwife'led pregnancies and birth, with a named mw - and i suppose you could ask them f look round and get everything explained?

maternity page
If you chaned there now, you would be usd to them by the time you gave birth because you would have had all your last weekly appointments there!

Personally I found being close to hime very very handy - we had to stay in longer than planned, and sending DP back home for things was a twice daily occurrence!

People praise St Thomas, too - is that an option? I have heard tell of a 'home from home' delivery suite there...

I had DS at King's - but before they moved to the new wing.

I think if there is something very important to you - e.g the birthing centre - that is not available at King's in any form, then I would stick with that.

But ask if King's replicate that in any way and go and look round.

Thanks Blu, sounds like I should be checking out Kings, particularly having just read the "Birth at EGA (UCLH)" thread with the various horror stories....

Bumping, though, as I know there are MN-ers who have recent experience of having babaies at Kings.

Hi FordyBee
I had DS1 and DS2 both at Kings in 2006 and 2007. The Nightingale Birth Unit is pretty good, but there is no 'home from home' type suite that you find in other hospitals. I had both my boys in Room 12 which is the room with the biggest pool... loads of room to walk around and moo at leisure! Of course they can't guarantee this room. I had very straightforward births - I stayed in 24h with DS1 and the after care was average, but exactly what I had been told to expect. My DP brought in food and painkillers for me as I'd been told that you are often waiting ages for them to remember, so it was all OK. I had DS2 at 11.30am and left the hospital at 2pm straight from the birthing suite so it was really great!
One thing I can't comment on are the hospital midwives as where I live (SE22) there are loads of fabulous groups of midwives attached to GP practices/Medical Centres who provide all of your ante-natal care and will deliver your baby at home or in hospital (The Oakwood Midwives were mine but also Brierley and Albany teams). So basically I had a team of 3 midwives who looked after me at home for the duration of my pregnancy, one of whom helped me birth DS2 at Kings, then discharged me 2 and a half hours later and popped in at 5pm to check up on me!
Gone off topic a bit here, sorry! Obviously you need to do what you feel comfortable with, but if you have moved south and are in SE22 or SE15, you may like to look into these midwives and take a tour of Kings. I can't really fault my experience.
Good luck with whatever you do

I was with Brierley Midwives - but they only take women planning a home birth. Or women who have experienced mental health problems such as PND.
They were very very good.

I have recent experience of Kings food and would not feed it to my worst enemy - unless you tick the 'halal' option, in which case you get a really fantastic curry from outside caterers! DP brought nice ready meal in for me.

I gave birth at king's, but know UCLH in a professional capacity.

I would opt for King's TBH. I was offered good quality, midwife-led care.

In Camberwell and Peckham, your care tends to be managed by small group midwifery practices, rather than seeing the hospital based midwives, so you do get some continuity of care.

the post-natal ward left a little to be desired, but that seems to be the case across london.

And Blu, the African-Carribean food options at King's are also much nicer than the bog standard fare - lovely jerk chicken, rice and peas (again, not cooked in the hospital).

Oh yes - the Caribbean option also v good - but the Kosher is truly hideous! (we ticked that for DS when he was last in, hoping that like the other 'specials' it would be better quality - it was worse! The halal and caribbean are proper spicy, though!)

A very belated thank you to everyone for their thoughts on this thread. Thought I would post a follow up as DS is now 3 months old - how time flies!

Just in case anyone else is interested, I ended up sticking with UCH, although things did go a little pearshaped and I ended up giving birth at Kings. With hindsight I wish I'd listened to you guys and moved to Kings in the first place as would have saved a lot of hassle. Now, I would stress to anyone asking that being a 45 min car drive to the hospital is not advisable if you can help it - when I was first considering, I obv had no idea how painful contractions are!

If you want the long story, when I thought the time had come (after 9 hrs from contractions starting), the drive was in vain as we were too early. After being told by the midwife that I didn't look like someone who was in labour (am sure she gets lots of women in early but someone really needs to tell her that's not a helpful statement!) she examined me and confirmed that I was only 2 cm dilated. We were sent home and told to keep them informed when we would be coming back. By the time I was in "proper" labour (and after a couple of calls in between to the Birthing Centre), I called again to say that by now actually I was fed up with the natural labour idea and really quite wanted an epidural, so they said I'd need to ring the labour ward who told me that they didn't have a bed for me, although they were happy for us to turn up and wait. By this time my contractions were 2 mins apart and knowing I might have to wait in a waiting room after another 45 min journey was too much for me - my husband rang Kings who agreed to take us and we went there instead. We had to wait 10 mins in the waiting room there, but they were absolutely fantastic and I cannot speak highly enough of the two midwives who dealt with us. I was 8 cm dilated, my waters broke on arrival and DS arrived 3 hrs later (just gas & air and an episiotomy as his head got a bit stuck - and he was 9lb 2!). As for UCH, not impressed at all about sums it up. I also find it odd that despite the fact that I had to give UCH my hospital number every time I rang up, no-one at any stage has bothered to call me or write to me to check whether I was ok or what happened in the end....

Many congratulations on the safe arrival of your DS, Fordybee.

Sorry to hear you had a little difficulty to begin with, but I'm really glad that the good folk of KCH came to the rescue. It really is a great hospital.

But most importantly, did you remember to stick to the Halal/African-carribean dinners ?

Oh yes, after I made the mistake of eating a lukewarm roast pork (or so I was told) 2 hrs after delivery (when I would have eaten anything), I remembered this thread.....!

Thanks for your congrats.